Spotlight On
Spotlight on AWS Electronics Group
This month’s spotlight falls on Paul Deehan, CEO AWS Electronics Group as we talk about the parts he has played through the electronics industry
day. This dedication paid off and a while later he was appointed operations supervisor. Still only in his mid-20’s, Paul then joined Land Rover as production manager in the body-in-white metal shop. He worked for Land Rover for seven years with a number of promotions and was latterly the manufacturing manager for the full body-in-white manufacturing area. In 1997, Lear Corporation head hunted him to become plant director of their Interior Trim division in the UK, later promoting him to head of group operations in UK and Europe. With plenty of manufacturing and management experience now under his belt, Paul wanted to become a shareholder in his own business, so he joined Aktrion Group, providing outsourced
Paul Deehan, CEO, AWS Electronics Group P
aul’s early career began unusually for a CEO. Born in the West Midlands, he played as an apprentice professional footballer for Birmingham City, but realised after some time he wasn’t going to make it to the top. A change of game plan was called for, so Paul joined famous Birmingham-based motor company Jaguar Cars. Working on the shop floor, he soon discovered that manufacturing was his true calling. His talent for all things automotive was spotted, and encouraged by the plant director. Sponsored by the company, Paul completed a business degree at night school, still working at the plant during the
26 December 2016/January 2017
manufacturing services to the automotive industry. After four years, Aktrion was sold in 2004, and in 2005 Paul acquired AWS Electronics from its previous owner. At the time, AWS had one manufacturing site at Newcastle-under-Lyme.
You acquired AWS 12 years ago. How has the business changed/developed in that time?
We have grown! At the time, we acquired three more companies in the UK – Jantec, a specialist electronics overhaul and repairs company; Cemgraft, a leading manufacturer of high-end PCB assemblies and finished product builds, and Instem Technologies, another electronics manufacturing provider, and consolidated them to expand our service offering. Another major development occurred in 2007, when we bought a small factory in
Components in Electronics
Námestovo, Slovakia. Many changes were occurring around this time, and the sector has since changed dramatically. Customers in the low to medium volume sector are looking to EMS companies for full support through the manufacturing cycle, right from prototyping to capacity production and through life support. After the 2008 - 2009 recession, customers wanted bespoke solutions, held inventory, Kanbans, shorter lead times from point of order to delivery and flexibility. We saw demand increasing and also how we could help our customers compete by providing low-cost manufacturing from within Central Eastern Europe from our Slovakian factory. In 2010, we consolidated our UK manufacturing operations into our current Newcastle-Under-Lyme facility, and also made a significant investment in a new 38,000 square foot purpose-built EMS facility in Slovakia, which also enables us to
sell into countries such as Germany, Switzerland, Austria and The Netherlands, for example.
What are the benefits and issues of having facilities in two different countries?
Both have developed extremely successfully – we employ 170 people in the UK and headcount is now 250 in Slovakia, where it was originally 10 back in 2007. We manufacture for global clients, many are UK, German, Japanese and US-owned businesses. For many of our customers we give a full bespoke service, on occasions even shipping directly to their end customers or distributors.
The significant benefits of having facilities in two countries are quite simply that they enable our customers to have the advantages of both. Much early design
75 board PCBA stack assembly for a high end cancer treatment technology
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